One hospital. One surgery. Ten different prices.

The same knee surgery. The same surgeon. The same room.

If the patient is on Medicaid, the hospital is paid $740. If the patient has good insurance through work, it is paid $3,752. ⠀ Nobody tells you this part: the better your insurance card, the more the same care costs. On this hospital's own price list, every employer plan pays more than every government plan. The people with the best coverage sit at the very top. ⠀ Employer plans are paid for with premiums. Premiums come out of paychecks. So that gap is not the hospital's problem or the insurer's problem. It is yours. ⠀ None of this is hidden. The hospital published these prices on a public website, because the law says it has to. Almost nobody ever looks. ⠀ I read these files for a living. I will keep posting what is in them.